Advanced emergency nursing journal
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Multicenter Study
Attitudes toward patients with sickle cell disease in a multicenter sample of emergency department providers.
Patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) often seek care in the emergency department (ED) for pain associated with vaso-occlusive crises. Research has shown that negative provider attitudes serve as a barrier to care in this patient population. Our aim was to validate a survey that measures attitudes toward SCD patients among ED providers (nurses and physicians) and to compare differences in attitude scores between provider types. ⋯ Among ED providers, this scale identified a dimension not observed in research with the original instrument among internal medicine providers. Provider attitudes influence patient-provider interactions and quality of care. The scale we present here has major clinical implications, particularly for advanced practice nurses, who can use the scale not only to assess providers' attitudes toward SCD patients but also to determine the effectiveness of tailored interventions to improve those attitudes.